Just had a call from a young lady claiming to be from Telephone Preference Services Management, if her English had been marginally better, she'd have been pretty convincing.

Her schtick was that as the regular Telephone Preference Service, TPS, hadn't succeeded in blocking all unsolicited calls, they would set up an exchange level block for me, I think if I had stayed with it a fee would have been required. I pointed out that she was an unsolicited caller, but her English wasn't up to that level of negotiation off script

While she was talking I navigated to the TPS website FAQ page, and this is a common scam, aimed at getting money from you (of course!)

Just to reiterate, TPS do not spontaneously call registered numbers any more than Microsoft technical services do

i can't believe the amount of stuff i must have ordered from amazon (.com not .co.uk) lately. i must be doing it in my sleep and cancelling the order straight away - although, strangely enough, they aren't confirming my order - just it's cancellation. when i look at the source code it doesn't seem like things i would've (could've) ordered - strange, that.

One that amuses me is the number of friend requests I get on FB from mature men, usually in the US military, but occasionally on offshore rigsThey follow a pattern, no FB friends apart from the occasional shy looking woman, no real detailsI declineI assume they are trying to get enough info about me to set up a sting, I looked at one in detail because I wasn't sure if he was a complete stranger or someone I'd met at a tournament, now I look at them trying to spot the pattern. Tournament acquaintances I regard as safe if they have multiple friends I know well (I don't always recognise the surname if I didn't play them)

Mr Rats lost his wallet. he reported it to the local gendarmerie and after 5 days was given a receipt and advised to apply for a new passport to enable him to reapply for driving permit etc.

Last friday he went on line re the passport - to the official site. before he was able to download ths form he had to pay up front. he couldn't send it off until Monday to enable him to get his photo oversigned. On Sunday the wallet was handed back to him by the bakers wife - she had had it all the time!

On Monday he rang the passport office to ask how to apply for a refund as he no longer needed a new one. He was told there were no refunds because "There are no mechanisms to do this"British Gvernment £90+ Mr Rats 0.

Cooking for those you care about is the most profound expression of love - Anne-Sophie Pic

We are registered with TPS but still get a barrage of calls from overseas which I know can't be stopped with TPS

Yesterday I counted 7

First was for reducing the cost of my tv insurance from £7 to £5 - all they needed was for me to set up a dd. I don't have specific tv insurance.Second and third was asking me about unwanted phone calls where I could buy some appliance to stop them - The irony.Fourth was from Talk Talk telling me my computer had been hacked - don't have Talk Talk

5th, 6th and 7th heard some unsavoury language

I never respond to any of these calls so I wonder why we get so many?!

capricornbcaroline is quite right. Go on with the fight! As I have mentioned before, it took them 9 months and a lot of inconvenience on my part for me to get my last passport. To suggest that in a period of a few days they ' will already have carried out a lot of work in processing it' is a load of tosh.

Odd one for Facebook usersI saw a a post apparently shared by a former colleagueIt seemed odd that anyone whose working life is devoted to clinical research would post one of these ridiculous rants about how cancer doesn't exist, it's an invention of the medical establishment, all you need is laetrile (laetrile being a candidate for most discredited 'medicine' in history)At least she wouldn't have posted it without a joke or a rantThen I noticed I had apparently shared this piece of toxic tosh, I was pretty sure I hadn't so I went to my activity log to delete it and noticed1. The original post is nearly two years old2. Although the counter says it has thousands of comments, only two new ones are visible both positive3. My activity log claimed I had started following the author of the tosh the day before I saw the post So this seems to be another version of the hijacking programs.I have reported to FB as well as I can, given their ridiculous report categoriesJust a little worrying, and I do wonder if someone in my network was targeted because of our professional interests. Or if it's just a particularly rubbish bit of FB spam.

Don't know about other email providers, but my Hotmail/Microsoft Outlook account gives me the option of, rather than deleting a scam email like that, forwarding it to them as a Phishing Scam where it adds to their info and helps them in their efforts to stop them.

I think I had one from 'BT' two days ago. Husband and I spent about an hour worrying about it and trying to chase this £750 online bill (couldn't remember the log in details). Still not sure if it was a scam, and if so how it worked. It wasn't asking for money or details, but here was was link which (I perhaps foolishly clicked and which) seemed to go to a genuine BT site. Were they after the password?

Causes for doubt: it pertained to a business accountit referred to a CEO who is not googleablethere was no way we could have racked up such a bill

But it looked genuine. I am perplexed by it. Could someone have used my email address to open an account?

It simply said that my new (massive) bill was available to see online (with a link to click on to view it). No information or money was requested. As I said it looked very convincing and I do receive such emails from BT from time to time as I don't get paper bills.

I keep getting emails from EHIC telling me my E111 card is about to expire, which it isn't. Is this a scam or is it just to pre-empt Brexit? They want £24.99 and I don't remember paying anything in the past.

I had a call earlier from a bank questioning me about my personal details. While I was in hospital my sister was my appointee, they wanted her personal details, but I do not bank with this bank. They are supposedly ringing me back later for sister's details. Me and Sis have agreed I should ignore. Could be a scam particularly as the line of work she is in. Things are ticking over quite nicely with my actual bank so this lot, whoever they are, can do one.

How do you look at the source code? Do you mean right click or something else? This one was not concealing it's identity anyway, but then it's not from a familiar (such as BT), and thus needing to be disguised entity.

As I said, clearly I did not click on this anyway. I only mentioned it in case anyone else got something similar as it's a very dangerous one...

The answer is just not to open any attachment. I don't think the email itself can be dangerous... can it? I can't not open emails at work, although I am very well protected there. At home, well...

edit: a quick google does not reveal a definitive answer to that question. The IT at person probably could give me one though!

I have had a couple of these (different names) on my iPhone. Am assuming pressing the buttons continues the scam?

Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept Jayden K. Smith friendship request. He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received.Hold your finger down on the message. At the bottom in the middle it will say forward. Hit that then click on the names of those in your list and it will send to them

I have a theory. No email (no need currently), tape letterbox shut, disregard unknown phone callers. Peace is restored in an instance. If anyone wants to scam me face to face be my guest.Sorry to anyone facing a scam. These people should face justice but seem to keep getting away with it.

Pepper Pig wrote:I have had a couple of these (different names) on my iPhone. Am assuming pressing the buttons continues the scam?

Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept Jayden K. Smith friendship request. He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received.Hold your finger down on the message. At the bottom in the middle it will say forward. Hit that then click on the names of those in your list and it will send to them

I had this message from 3 of my FB friends this morning ... I have ignored all of them !

I have been on the phone to the Halifax for the last hour. They phoned me to say there was some unusual activity on my account. I phoned them back on the number I had and yes, they were genuinely the Halifax. I thought the unusual activity was that I'd had a £700 tax rebate. That had happened but they were mostly concerned with a transaction this morning for £0.00. Apparently this is a fraud where the individuals concerned run a dummy through your account to see if it's genuine. The pain of it is that I've had to change all my security settings and am waiting for a new card but full marks to the bank for spotting it straight away.

That's terrible PP but good job your bank were on the ball enough to flag it with you. I would never have thought of being wary of a £0.00 transaction. What lengths they will go to. Are you in a position to stop it happening further from same scanner? I presume your bank now has steps in place?

It can be a problem with these small amounts in accounts. Some of them are genuine. We had a problem a while back with a retailer who offered a "Free three month introductory offer". No money was taken until the three months was up, but they put through a £1 transaction on our credit card and then refunded it. Quite reasonably, they wanted to check that the details we had given them were genuine and the money would be available when it was due. The card company put a temporary stop on the account until they had contacted us.

Another, non-scam, that causes concern on credit cards is that some petrol retailers put a minimum time and distance on repeated use of a credit card. So if you use a card for buying petrol, you can't use it again at that store or nearby ones for a few hours. That's a problem if you and your wife share a card and turn up at Tesco within an hour of eachother! The cashier assumes that you have no credit, which is awkward as it's his/their problem really.

We received today a supposed e-mail from Paypal saying that Google Play was charging us a few hundred £ and that we had 5 days to challenge it. It looked real and had our e-mail address but I was not sure if Mr. Z. had 'done' something for my Birthday so contacted Paypal and asked the question. Two mins later we had a personalised reply saying yes, it was a scam SO BEWARE !!

We belong to TPS and BT's 1572 - enabling us to block calls from certain numbers but only after they've called you. The buggers have got round that. Last couple of calls we've had, tapped in to block any future calls only to be told 'we do not have the details for this number'.

Every day is a good day, it's just that some days are better than others.